


One of the Girls

by Aaronna



Series: Soldier of Healing [11]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: All the Kyoshi warriors are, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Herbalist Zuko (Avatar), Inspired by MuffinLance's Tumblr, Kyoshi Warriors are Bi, M/M, Misgendering, Multi, No beta: we die like men, Paintbending, Possessive Behavior, Post-Episode: s01e20 Siege of the North Part 2, Protective Katara (Avatar), Sexual confused Sokka, Sokka doesn't need more magiciness, Spirit in Kyoshi face paint and armor, Suki is Crushing Hard, confused Sokka, cuddly danger noodles, inspired by fan art on Tumblr, self-realization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29370876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronna/pseuds/Aaronna
Summary: Spirit meets Suki and makes friends AKA Yue's Cousin sizes up Sokka's almost girlfriend and gains an unlikely ally.
Relationships: One-sided Spirit/Kyoshi Warriors (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar), Spirit & Katara (Avatar), Spirit & Kyoshi Warriors (Avatar), Spirit & Suki (Avatar), Spirit & Unagi, Spirit/Sokka (Avatar), Spirit/Yue/Sokka (Avatar)
Series: Soldier of Healing [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910278
Comments: 66
Kudos: 158





	One of the Girls

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).



> Sorry for the wait! Life has been crazy!
> 
> Feel free to chat on Discord!  
> https://discord.gg/6TpZWEye

Leaving the Southern Watertribe had left half their group a bit melancholy, Spirit would be the first to admit it. Aang, Appa, and Momo were full of energy and sickeningly happy. Katara had left behind teachers, a loving grandmother, and a friend, Sokka left behind duty and responsibility to the tribe as their chief to keep his promise to the Avatar, his Gran Gran, and Yue, his future wife if everything worked out. Spirit had left the South not knowing what happened to the people he saved from death, some of them not for the first time, his only grandmother figure (he didn't count the Herbalist mainly because she never acted grandmotherly), and his cousin/second best friend/loving sister. Aang left behind a teacher he disliked, took all but one of his close friends with him, so he didn't have a reason to be blue.

The fact that only the three wearing the color blue were feeling down had been the basis of every joke the airbender had used to cheer them up with over the past hour. Sokka and Spirit knew it was their fault for smiling slightly at the first one, but it had quickly lost its charm. If Katara didn't distract him soon, the boys were planning to gag him.

Spirit would say he and Sokka had grown a lot closer since they reached the North Pole, but he was still not sure the Southerner had really sorted out his feelings yet. All of the Northern Watertribe thought they were engaged before Tui and La made it clear Yue was Sokka's future while the former chief knew his daughter was betrothed to a mysterious suitor who was not Sokka and the relationship was blessed by the Sun and Moon spirits. Goodness, the firebender wasn't even sure his friend knew about the whole proposing to the princess while bed ridden part.

Given all that, it was understandable that they hadn't talked about their mock relationship. Well, he knew they would soon. It wasn't as though it was going to get more awkward. 

'(•V•)'

Katara wasn't sure the two of them realized it, but Spirit and her brother had been comforting each other and acting like the couple they had pretended to be back at the North Pole. She had thought Sokka had gotten over his crush on the girlish side of Spirit after meeting Yue, but it looks like she was wrong. This was going to be uncomfortable when they got to Kyoshi Island and Suki came back in the picture.

She knew her and Aang had been growing closer too, especially after she took over as his waterbending instructor. Her and Aang had always had a relationship like this, but it was deeper now than it had been. She realized as the Avatar, he fit Aunt Wu's prediction and embraced it to learn bending in the North. Now, she wasn't sure what she and the airbender really were to each other anymore.

She managed to get him to stop with the blue jokes, but distracting him with waterbending would only work for so long before she started missing home, the boys sighed sadly again, or Aang's attention would wander off to something else. The sooner they weren't trapped on Appa's back, the better.

When she thought that, she really hadn't expected the sea serpent that guarded the island to show up and knock them around. Sokka's blood curdling scream made it worse because she knew that particular panicked tone. It was one she had heard not that long ago when Spirit was thrown into the ice waters of the North.

She didn't get a chance to do anything before her friend climbed back into the saddle from the opposite side as Sokka was clinging to as he screamed the firebender's name. The healer shuffled over and pulled her brother into his arms as he shot a blast of hot air at the sea serpent. Sobs replaced the heartbreaking bellow.

By this point, Aang has managed to get Appa out of bashing range, but not far enough to stop Katara from sending ice daggers at the beast. She smiled at the pained cry that followed until she got kicked in the shin and pinned with a scarred glare, behind which, she could see sadness, frustration, and fear, which hit much harder than the kick had. She was confused why her actions seemed to hurt her friend until she noticed Sokka flinching each time the serpent so much as whimpered.

She made sure her and Aang actively ignored the humming, then the whispered heart to heart. Katara actually missed when that all ended, so she jumped slightly when a hand landed on her shoulder. She turned to see a pale Sokka giving her a sad smile before he gestured to the pack she was using as a table for her sewing. She handed it over wordlessly with an apologetic look which earned her an amused huff.

From then until they were in sight of the island, she watched her brother and cousin interact. Sokka got to work cleaning and sharpening his weapons, staying in physical contact with Spirit. When the healer moved away momentarily, she could watch his form tense until the firebender returned with his own dao blades and sat so their knees touched, causing the tension to bleed away. It would have been tease-worthy if she did know how much those two had been through together in the past couple months.

They were all distracted from what they were doing when a few minutes later Aang called back to them that he could see the island. Given how they had already found Kyoshi’s pet guardian, the waterbender wondered how it had taken them this long to be in sight, but she ignored that thought as she put away her sewing and moved to get a look at the place they had fled, leaving it at Zhao’s mercy.

The scars of the attack were still visible, from scorched patches of the hillside to new walls and roofs that stood out from the old like airbenders in the midst of the watertribe. There were people everywhere, doing all sorts of tasks that Katara could only begin to guess at, more people that she had known lived on the island. Also, where did all these men come from?

When they landed, The first thing she noticed was that while all the girls were excited to see Aang, and a few Sokka, all these men met Spirit’s eye and nodded slightly. How did their friend know all these people? They all seemed to have green and brown eyes she had grown to know as Earth Kingdom, not the Fire Nation yellows and oranges, so were they from near the ruins where they first met the healer? Then, Katara recognized one of the men.

It was one of the firebenders from the deserter camp! Did everyone here know they weren’t Earth Kingdom? She didn’t want to bring it up if they didn’t, but the people of Kyoshi Island deserved to know who the people helping them were. Hopefully no one would get hurt when they did learn…

She didn’t get to worry about it for too long before Spirit went rigid beside her as a certain leader of the Kyoshi Warriors planted a kiss on Sokka. She wasn’t sure they had told Spirit about the almost relationship between those two before, but she realized she should have been paying more attention to Suki and less to the Fire Nation outcasts. Well, it was too late to stop the judgement in her cousin’s eyes as he glared openly at one of the most important people on the island. Sokka broke the kiss quickly, looking confused and betrayed in a way that allowed Spirit to relax a bit and Suki to look upset.

That was when Suki saw the tall firebender in Watertribe blue staring at her judgingly. Katara watched as the warrior's mouth dropped slightly before being pulled into a welcoming smile, but there was a challenging glint in her blue-grey eyes. There was a brief flash of confusion when she caught sight of Spirit’s dao hilts through the pile of black braids, Katara saw a slight smirk from her cousin at that and fought not to roll her eyes.

Not sure what took him so long to notice, but Aang decided that was the perfect time to introduce the newest member of the Gaang. There were many snickers from the men at the back of the group as the Avatar introduced Spirit as his firebending teacher, healer, and sword master and Suki as the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors and Sokka’s almost girlfriend. Katara also cut in to help with the situation, but Sokka was blushing and sending apologetic looks at the two people glaring at him.

Whispers about the “firebender” rippled through the crowd and the tension finally pushed Suki into escorting them away to explain this to the village leader. Katara saw Spirit looking back as the giant eel that was still whimpering at the mouth of the bay, but pulled him along as they were led to the large triangular building at the top of the hill they had been to during their last visit. Hopefully, this time wouldn't end with them fleeing the island with the Fire Nation on their tails.

Given the betrayed looks Suki was sending them because of Spirit, those men helping with the repairs were not telling that they were not Earth Kingdom. Was she upset that Aang called her Sokka’s almost girlfriend, that Sokka pulled away from the kiss, that they had brought a firebender to the island, or a mix of all of it? Well, Katara figured she’d find out soon enough.

Well, she thought so at least. Instead, she listened to Oyaji, the village leader, repeat the Fire Nation spy question. She rolled her eyes as Spirit blinked in confusion. He probably hadn’t known the men outside hadn’t said they were Fire Nation deserters. 

Interestingly, Sokka pushed Aang forward to explain, but everyone seemed to want to hear it from the warrior they had trusted enough to train in the ways of the Kyoshi Warriors and not the Avatar. So, her brother stepped forward with confidence he hadn’t had last time they were here and told them about the storm, fevers, meeting Spirit, Spirit’s injuries from Zhao, meeting Spirit again at the abbey with Bato, the test of courage, finding out Spirit was a firebender, Zhao’s attack, traveling with Spirit, meeting Jeong Jeong and the 41st Division, Spirit fighting Zhao alone, meeting the fliers at the air temple, Spirit nearly died in the waters of the North, meeting the Northern watertribe, getting to know Princess Yue while Spirit healed, Spirit showing the tribe they weren’t ready for the Fire Nation, pretending to be engaged to Spirit, learning he was the chosen of La and could waterbend, the fleet, Hahn, Katara and Yue getting attacked and Aang getting kidnapped, getting the girls to the healers before going to help Spirit take down the Fire Nation General, meeting back with the girls before getting pulled back to the spirit oasis with Yue, being attacked by Zhao there, getting possessed by the Ocean and Moon, waking up with the Northern tribe moved to the South pole and being named chief by Tui and La, his bound to Yue by the spirits, then them leaving to find Aang a earthbending teacher, and ended with Spirit almost getting killed when the unagi hit Appa. Aang chimed in a few times to add details about when Sokka wasn’t around and described the spar between the two in the council chamber, but thankfully left out Sokka crying in Spirit’s arms not even an hour before they landed.

The story seemed to be enough for Oyaji, but Katara was more worried about Suki. The lead warrior looked pensive, but no longer looked at them like they had turned against her. Actually, she didn’t meet anyone's eyes as she led them to the same rooms they had used last time they were here.   
  
Katara wasted no time pulling Spirit to the bed she had shared with Sokka last time and began taking out the mass of braids. They were heading into the Earth Kingdom, so she needed to practice with some less watertribe hairstyles. Nothing as simple as Haru’s mother’s, but more like Aunt Wu maybe? His hair might be too long for that and she wasn’t sure how to get it to look that... Big. Maybe just a simple braid for now until she got some local inspiration.

Braid finished, she was pulled out of the room by Aang to check on Appa, then they browsed the markets, she helped heal some injuries while Aang helped with the rebuilding, they joined some of the firebenders from Jeong Jeong’s camp for a late lunch, then they both helped with repairs, Katara invented paint bending -which was really hard to do and only worked while wet-, healed some bruises gained since lunch, and then eventually returned to their room to find a wet haired Spirit and Sokka in red and white face paint. Not wanting to know until after she bathed, the waterbender ignored them both until dinner.   
  


The answers she did finally get were less than helpful. “Helping” and “Training” told her nothing about their day. Did they do these things with someone? Was that all they did? Did they not eat lunch?

That last one was unlikely given just how much those two usually put away in a single meal, but they did seem hungrier than normal, but that could just be from moving more than usual. Though Spirit did slow down after Aang handed him some spices one of the men from lunch had given him, over all, the firebender ate significantly more than Sokka had. Which was good since Master Yugoda had been worried he had lost too much weight on the way to the North and had barely gained any back since, not that she had told the firebender that. 

She was feeling good about her cousin’s eating habits when said person pulled her aside. The idiot had hurt his shoulder almost falling but hadn’t said anything and then made it worse by “Helping”. His muscles were all tense and trying to stiffen, his ribs were slightly bruised and he had a bunch of scratches. She wanted to ask what kind of helping he had been doing, but he just looked so tired when she finished healing that she let it slide for now.

Spirit was asleep almost as soon as he was under the covers and sokka was already out cold sprawled out on top of the other bed. Katara assumed that by “Training” her brother meant he had been with the warriors in their dojo all day, so she checked him over and healed his sore muscles and bruises before putting him properly in the bed. With those two down for the night, the master waterbender moved to the shore to practice.

She hadn’t been practicing long before Aang joined her and it soon became a lesson. She set Aang to mastering a form he was already familiar with and watched until he got it. Then she moved to something completely new.   
  
Because of Spirit and his heat bending technique, she had learned she could pull water from the air and soil or just use the moisture in them to move it all. She hadn’t had a chance to try it with plants yet though. She was pretty sure pulling water out of them would be easy for him, but moving them would be hard to do without harming them. That was she was going to have Aang try next.

As she thought, pulling the water out was easy and the airbender had no trouble extracting water from different sources, but he lacked the fine control to bend the plants themselves. Katara on the other hand, managed it after only a few tries. It was an odd feeling and it made her aware of just how much water she was always surrounded by. She wasn’t going to tell Sokka, but she was fairly sure she could use her bending to make jerky, especially if Spirit helped.

Not knowing how long they were staying on the island, Katara called their training to a close when the last quarter of the moon disappeared behind the mountains and headed to bed. She let her hair loose, pulled off her parka, and laid down next to the best bed warmer ever. She fell asleep fairly quickly feeling the water pump through the three people in the room with her.   
  


As usual, Spirit woke before dawn and pulled the still mostly asleep Aang outside to greet the sun. When they got back, the firebender gently woke Sokka and asked him to spar with him. Usually her brother would have just groaned and gone back to sleep, but after that scare yesterday, he seemed more than happy to get up and fight before the Kyoshi Warriors took him for the rest of the day. That or the former prince gave him sad eyes, both were fairly likely. Katara did make sure they ate breakfast beforehand, but otherwise she left them alone and went to help out in the village.

At lunch, she went to check on her brother and cousin, only they weren't in their rooms, the market, with Aang and Appa, or in the outdoor training area. That left three places. The mountains, the rooftops, or the Kyoshi training room. While Spirit might be in those first two, she knew she would at least find Sokka in the third.

At first, she didn't know what she was seeing, but it looked like one of the warriors was blindfolded and was fighting a different one who was using Spirit's daos. That was when Katara realized it was Sokka holding the swords and that the person he was fighting had very long and familiar black hair. Those two were sparring, again, instead of eating lunch.

As soon as her arms crossed, Spirit stiffened and took Sokka down in seconds. He pulled off the blindfold and smiled pleadingly at her, his good eye glistening in excitement. It was good seeing him have fun, but he didn't need more reasons to skip meals, so she just raised her eyebrow at him.

The speed at which those eyes went from incredibly happy to depressed was worrying to the waterbender. What had she accidentally done now? She hadn't even said anything!

She couldn't stand there waiting for him to explain, so she turned to Sokka. When she asked if they had eaten, she felt Spirit's body shift in realization, just like she felt his blood pumping, the sweat trickling through his hair, and that of everyone in the room. She had been ignoring the call of the water inside people all day, but she couldn't turn her back on how much less water her idiots had than the others.

Suki apologized for not stopping them for lunch. It seemed they had all eaten while watching Spirit and Sokka spar. Katara tried to smile and accept it as an honest mistake, but the way Suki's heart beat differently when she said it had the bender fighting the urge to glare at their host.

That was when she noticed it again as Spirit stretched, from all the warriors. Looking around, all the girls were fighting blushes. That was when she understood what had happened.

Spirit had a hoard of admirers.

Wait. Did they know he isn't a girl? How and when did they find out?

She got her answers as she ate with the boys. They didn't know and him being a girl didn't matter. He was apparently very pretty, a great fighter, and a good influence on Sokka and the Avatar. At least that is what she got from their whispers and giggles.

Katara had to admit, he looked like a beautiful lady in the Kyoshi face paint. They hadn't covered the scar, but painted red and black flowers along the edges of it. It looked really nice.

Poor Sokka was confused, but that was fairly common. He looked like he was the center of the woman's tent back home when they gossipped about their husbands. She had no pity for him since he had brought it on himself, bringing Spirit with him to train. What had he thought would happen? 

When they were done eating, Katara smirked at the shocked looks at how much food they had put away during the meal. She then asked if he wanted to see her new bending technique she had learned from watching him. Next thing she knew, everyone was outside with them gaping at their combined bending.

Them both pulling their element straight from the air, Spirit appearing to waterbend the hot water, and Katara tried to move the fire surrounded by moist air with slight success, but it was enough to gain awed gasps. Mostly it was just the two of them playing with the water until she pulled seaweed from the depths and made shapes with them and Spirit did the same with flames. That got much more attention, not just from the warriors, but the firebenders hiding as Earth Kingdom citizens.

There was pure pride on those men's faces as they watched the child that had saved them all show a side of bending they had never seen before. These men loved Spirit in a way that all leaders should wish for their people, but Katara doubted Ozai or his father Azulon had people who cared for them like Spirit was by these firebenders. They had no love for the ruler that had planned their deaths and saw no reason they needed to live.

Knowing she shouldn't draw attention to them, Katara forced herself not to beam back at them and changed the focus from herself and Spirit to her brother. Sokka said Yue had figured out how her bending worked, but what about his? They were about to find out.

It was a bit of a flop, but his bending was better than hers was when she left the South Pole for the first time. The real accomplishment was allowing Spirit to sneak off to hang out with his countrymen. It would be a while before the Kyoshi warriors stopped giggling and started looking for their new friend.

She didn't see him at all until dinner when they decided they needed to keep moving. They needed to get to Omashu, but Spirit's friends said the city had been turned into a Fire Nation colony recently and King Bumi was said to be held prisoner. Aang wanted to rescue his childhood friend, but the healer said that Jeong Jeong's men were already working on getting him out.

In fact, Spirit was fairly convinced the mad king wasn't the right teacher for the airbender, but Aang refused to hear it. So after breakfast in the morning, they were going to say their goodbyes and go free a 112 year old earthbender from a former Earth Kingdom fortress occupied but Fire Nation troops still loyal to the Fire Lord.

Their departure from Kyoshi Island was very different from last time and they were less sad than they had been leaving the South Pole just a few days ago. Sokka hugged Suki and Spirit gave them all a traditional Fire Nation bow with a real flame. Aang and Katara just waved as they set off on the next leg of their journey to save the world.

'(•V•)'

Sokka had been sad about leaving behind Gran Gran and Yue, but after how close he had grown with Spirit since that day when he feverishly thought he was a beautiful woman, seeing him fall out of the saddle again broke something inside Sokka. He felt the sea and knew the firebender never hit the surface, which meant he couldn't even save him from the waves. The only other place La's child could imagine his friend had gone was in the mouth of the Unagi.

Eaten life was almost as bad as being buried alive and Sokka couldn't allow Spirit to end that way. He screamed in outrage, fear, and crippling sadness and the giant eel replied with surprise and confusion. He didn't get to wonder or get angry about that when he got pulled into a familiar, warm embrace. He knew he was bawling his eyes out onto Spirit’s parka, but he didn’t care as long as his friend was there and alive. He doubted the reality as he heard screams of pain and a rough voice begging for help. If it wasn't for the hug and hums, he wasn’t sure he ever would have calmed down.

Each time he heard those pained cries, he questioned what was real. If it wasn’t for the gentle, understanding questions from the firebender, he wouldn’t have realized those sounds were from the Unagi where Katara had hurt it. It was much easier to handle when he knew, logically, that those sounds weren’t Spirit being toyed with by the serpent, but the serpent itself.   
  


He didn’t understand why he could hear it asking for help and wanting to to know why it hurt. He was the Child of La, but he had hunted animals that lived in the ocean before and after finding that out and he never heard them have voices like this. Why did he only just now get this, at the one time he really didn’t need to doubt his sanity. The answer didn’t come to him as he grabbed his weapons or while he worked on cleaning them, but when Spirit moved to grab his swords and his panic rose, it dawned on him.

It was like his bending. He hadn’t known it was there until he had Spirit and Yue there with him. When he saw that black hair vanish from Appa’s saddle, all he had wanted was to keep the overgrown eel from hurting the firebender he had grown to be best friends with. He had opened up the ability by praying that nothing would take Spirit from him. 

Great… Now he had two magic water powers he needed to learn about. This was going to be a pain to explain to Katara. Hopefully she wouldn’t laugh at him… Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

Then they were at the island and everyone was talking. Then, boom! Suki kissed him, which was weird instead of nice like he had once imagined it would be. He didn’t mean to act like it was disgusting, but it felt wrong. Of course, that was when Aang told everyone Spirit was a firebender, making the whole thing even worse.

They all got dragged to the village leader again and instead of letting the Avatar explain this all, they wanted him to, which sucked. He straightened up, imagined explaining everything to those Northern idiots, and the words poured out. Thankfully Suki stopped looking like he had kicked her polar bear dog puppy about halfway through and by the end the village chief guy was happy too. 

Suki took them to a familiar room before asking if he wanted to pick up where they had left off training last time, and he couldn’t say no, not with Katara messing with Spirit’s hair again. It wasn’t weird this time to put on the dress and let the girls paint his face, not after the facepaint and dressup with Spirit up in the North. Then he got to fight the warriors with moves they didn’t know he knew.

He had learned stances, forms, techniques, and a bunch of other stuff from Spirit and had practiced it into second nature training at the pole. When they had last seen him, he was a boy who hadn’t had anyone to train with since his father had left him behind. Now, he had spent months training most of the day and was more confident and less pompous than he had been. They hadn’t expected the new Sokka.

Once they realized they didn’t need to go easy on him, things got fun. The fans were not Spirit’s dao, but the same ideas worked for both. He was a visionary, so thinking up new ways to use the weapon wasn’t hard, but it seemed to surprise the girls. They kept going forever, not stopping until dinner, lunch long forgotten.

He got to their room shortly before Spirit did, giving him just enough time to trade the green dress for the clothes he wore under his parka. The firebender was soaked and wincing slightly, Sokka may have assumed the worst, that the villagers had attacked him, but the satisfied smirk quickly smothered those thoughts. Then he caught sight of what was tied around his friend’s waist and he understood.

Earlier, while he had been getting ready, he had been actively ignoring the whines of the Unagi out in the bay. Near the beginning of the first spar, he had felt the confusion and indignance from the beast, but hadn’t really thought much about it until the hisses of pain and the pouting made him think of the boys back home when they got their cuts and scrapes cleaned, He had assumed Katara had gone and healed it as an apology for hurting it, but Spirit had his healer’s bag and was soaked through. 

The idiot had gone swimming out to a creature big enough to eat Appa as a snack and convinced it to let him treat it. This was why he hadn’t wanted to let Spirit out of his sight! Why had he trusted Katara to keep an eye on him? 

As if she knew he had been thinking about her, his sister walked in, looked at them both with a raised eyebrow before, turned, grabbed a clean set of clothes, and left without a second glance. He and Spirit shared a look before they started laughing at the sight they made. Yeah, he didn’t really blame either of them, not really.

Knowing they had gotten off easy with Katara, they helped each other change before Aang saw them and started cracking Jokes again. Spirit seemed to have trouble moving his arm well enough to get the drenched skins of the parka off, so Sokka helped him. This exposed the bruises from that morning, making the warrior mad at himself for not noticing he was rubbing his snotty nose against a slowly swelling shoulder.

He was cut off from saying anything by a rag being shoved in his face. He dodged without thinking only to have Spirit bark at him to stay still. That was how he ended up studying his friend’s face as said friend washed and scrubbed the paint away. 

Like every time he was close to Spirit and not panicking, he body got all confused. The firebender was pretty and handsome, so he kind of understood, but he knew he was a guy, so why did his body act the same way to Spirit as it did with Suki the first time he was here? He was pretty sure this was something he needed to talk to his dad about, or maybe even Bato, but they weren’t really around right now.

And if he thought the face washing was bad, Suki showing up to their sparring and inviting them both to training was worse because they dressed them both up and made Spirit look prettier with a new hairstyle and white paint with blood red flowers around the edge of the scar. Also, the Kyoshi Warriors were worse than the men at the North Pole with their flirting and comments, which didn’t help his confusion, so now his body and head were on the same page, but still lost. They thought he was a girl, so why were they like this?

Was that just how girls were? He only really had Katara to use as an example, but since she was the only girl he really knew growing up, she wasn’t really a good comparison. She was close to Spirit, but Sokka was pretty sure she was after his hair, not him. Gran Gran or Yue could probably explain it, but they weren’t around either since he had left them behind at the South Pole.

Before long, Spirit had fought all of the girls with his daos, then somehow, they ended up in his hands as the firebender got ahold of two golden fans. Like Sokka had figured out the day before, Spirit used them like the swords before falling into something more graceful and dangerous. It was very distracting to the watertribe warrior until one of the girls teased him about the blades in his hands, so he took his eyes off his friend and showed them he knew how to use the broad swords too.

One thing led to another and Sokka was soon up against a blindfolded Spirit. It was fun in a way he hadn’t felt since he was a kid and the person across from him seemed to feel the same way if the open grin was anything to go by. They kept going, pushing each other harder and in new ways until Katara showed up and made them stop to eat. He was hungry, sure, but he wished they could have gone a bit longer because after lunch, Katara took over.

It was amazing watching them bend, he had seen Spirit do his water trick, but Katara moving fire? That was new. Also, since when could she make water come from anywhere and control plants? He had not been paying enough attention to his sister it seemed.

Of course, she decided that was the perfect time to embarrass him by making him show off his pitiful bending. Thankfully, she let him stop after a few minutes, but then Spirit was gone. He couldn't help but join the warriors in moping about the fact as they went back to training.

Well, he said training, but it was more telling stories and goofing off with weapons. He let the girls mess around with his machete and boomerang as they told various stories, but eventually, it was his turn to talk. He talked about what life was like before his mother died, being the oldest boy in the village when the men left, getting to know Aang and Spirit, his stories about the North Pole were constantly interrupted by the warriors, then he talked about Yue.

He didn't realize he was getting weird looks until he got to being La's child and Yue being Tui's. That was when the girls realized he was with Yue. They seemed angry.

He was yelled at for a bit before Suki stepped in and asked the question the others didn't think needed asked, but it really did. She simply asked if Yue was alright with him being with Spirit while they were apart, but that confused Sokka. He said it like it was. He wasn't with Spirit, they were good friends, but Yue was his future. They all gaped at him after that, but they didn't say anything.

That night at dinner, they made the decision to move on to the mainland since Katara and Spirit had learned from some of the repairmen that King Bumi and Omashu were captured by the Fire Nation. They did need to get Aang to an earthbending teacher as quickly as they could since Spirit seemed sure they were running short on time, but Sokka wished he could train more before they left. Oh well, tomorrow, they were saying goodbye to Kyoshi Island again.

When the time came, Sokka wasn't actually sad to go. He did hug Suki bye, which gave her a chance to whisper something in his ear, but for the life of him he couldn't make it out over the din Aang's fans were making. The oddest goodbye was from the Unagi, who wanted him and Spirit to return and nest? 

Maybe they should get out of here. Something weird going on with the island if even the sea life thought they were together! Good grief!

'(•V•)'

Aang was pretty sure if Sokka could go into the Avatar State or join with La at will, then he would have done it right after they were hit by the Unagi, but since he couldn’t, he was screaming. Was this how he had sounded when he found  Monk Gyatso? If he had, he felt he needed to thank Katara more for pulling out of his grief. He just hoped she could comfort her brother like she had him back then.

When the screaming turned to sobs, Aang allowed himself to look back despite the pain in his chest from his own grief when he saw Spirit was the one hugging Sokka instead of Katara. He was relieved and slumped because of it only to straighten up and stiffen as pained cries came from where they had left. Turning back to the saddle, he saw the glare the firebender was giving. He made a point of not asking any questions and not looking at any of them after that.

He wasn’t sure why when they landed everyone was upset about Spirit. They knew he was going to have to learn firebending eventually, right? So why did Sokka have to tell them everything they knew about the healer before they trusted the firebender? Was his word not good enough?

He was still wondering about that when Suki and Sokka left, but then he remembered Appa had been hit during the flight, so he took Katara with him to check on him, just in case he needed her healing. Appa was happy to see them again and they took off his saddle, but otherwise he seemed fine. The stable he had stayed in before was destroyed, so Aang offered to help rebuild it. 

There was a lot of damage from Admiral Zhao’s attack. If he could do this much damage here, Aang was glad Spirit had been able to limit the damage he had done at the abbey and wished they had picked up the firebender earlier so he could have helped the islanders too. Since he couldn’t turn back time, the Avatar was going to help the people of his former life!

Mostly he used his airbending to move around lumber and to put roof beams in place, but he did a lot of other stuff to help out too! Shingling, passing water to the other workers, treating the wood, delivering buckets of nails, passing tools, and all sorts of other stuff. He tried copying how Katara painted the walls with her bending, but he couldn’t feel the water in the gloop like she did, so he just used a brush instead. 

During lunch, he saw some familiar faces, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen them before. They weren’t from the island, but he had been all over the Earth Kingdom, so he didn’t have any place to help him figure it out. He kept wondering after the meal, but it was forgotten almost as soon as he got back to work. He doubted it was important anyway, because if it was, he would definitely have remembered their names and where they had met, right?

He almost forgot to give Spirit the spices the men had given him for his bending master until the Firebender was already eating and that was only because Momo was playing with the pouch. They must have been good, because those golden eyes lit up and he kept making pleased sounds as he ate them all under the table. Katara looked pleased that their friend was happy and full, but Sokka looked like he was going to fall asleep right there at the table, but was still trying to catch up to the number of bowls Spirit had downed, which was more than all of them had eaten combined, so that wasn’t going to happen. 

He left to feed Appa while Katara tried to get the dishes away from her brother and when he came back, she was the only one in the room awake. Even Momo was curled up on the pillow by the Sokka’s head. Aang was pretty tied too, but couldn’t really say no to bending practice. Well, he tried to say it, but got pulled outside anyway, so that was the same thing, right?

They practiced pulling water out of things, then moving the water in things. Aang thought he did really good on the first thing, but moving mud was as hard as the paint and it was super hard controlling the water in the plants without pulling it out of them. That didn't stop Katara from making him try it over and over until the moonlight was gone.

It barely felt like he had laid down before Spirit woke him up to greet the rising sun. He worked tiredly all morning with the villagers, but Katara wasn't around at lunch, so he sat an gossipped for a while. That was where he heard the news that really woke him up.

Omashu had been taken over as the newest Fire Nation colony. Not only that, they had Bumi locked up as their prisoner in his own city. They needed to go help him!

After that, the day couldn't end quick enough. He was pretty sure Agni was playing with him because he was almost positive that was the longest day he had ever lived through. It seemed like forever before the sun started to set and everyone finally stopped working. Then, he had to wait until dinner to tell all his friends at the same time.

Thankfully, they all agreed that they should leave in the morning, but Aang was confused why they didn't think Bumi was the right teacher for him. Sure, he had learned easier and better from Spirit and Katara than he had Master Jeong Jeong and Master Pakku, but they hadn't been his friends like the mad king was. What wouldn’t be great about having him as a teacher?

That night, he got the answers to his question as he dreamed of endless riddles, non-stop attacks he barely escaped alive, and being forced to eat meat. It was a nightmare! But Bumi would never do that to him, would he?

He woke up more tired than when he had gone to sleep. It seemed to take forever for the others to eat and say their goodbyes, so he had to try not to yawn the whole time. Eventually, they were on Appa and heading for the mainland, maybe after a few hours, he could get Sokka or Spirit to steer while he took a nap!

'(•V•)'

Suki had mixed feelings about Avatar Aang being back. On one hand, their island was blessed by an Avatar again, Sokka was back, and none of them were hurt. On the other, Sokka rejected her kiss, they brought an ashmaker with them, and she was fairly sure that the firebending girl was the reason Sokka had pushed her away. How could they do this after their last stay ended with so many buildings burning and lives lost?

She wanted to feed the golden eyed beauty to the Unagi, but she had a duty to serve the Avatar. Also, since when did benders use weapons? Those were sword handles poking through those braids. If she was good with blades and fire, Suki could understand Sokka falling for her, if she wasn’t an ashmaker, Suki would be all over that too.

After Sokka and Aang covered what had happened since they met Spirit, she felt differently about the girl. It wasn’t because of what was said, but the way those pale eyes and face showed emotions that the girl was clearly trying to hide. They told more about her than the stories did. The embarrassed flushes, paling in horror or regret, frustrated reddening on that marred face, how gold eyes dimmed in sadness only to glint with mischief soon after, the wistful look when the Northern Princess was mentioned, they told a story that the Kyoshi Warrior was interested in reading.

As she led the four to their room, she pondered on when to tell the girls when they asked. She didn’t even think about how there were only two beds in there until she saw them, but was relieved when Katara pulled the tall girl to the bed the watertribe siblings had shared before to work on the ridiculously luscious black hair on Spirit’s head. Thoughts popped into Suki’s mind at the sight, but she quickly distracted herself by asking Sokka to train with the Warriors again.

It was amazing how far he had come in his fighting style since she last fought with him and he credited it to his new traveling companion and beating up the men of the North for their comments about both of the girls. As they pushed through the day, Suki realized it wasn’t just his fighting that had improved, but his attitude, manners, and view on things were different from when they first met. She wasn’t sure if she should thank Spirit, Katara, or the mysterious Princess Yue.

He never asked for a break, not even for lunch, and almost trounced them multiple times with fan moves none of them has taught him or even knew in some cases. It was almost like he was a different person and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that either. Not that she would turn him back, she just wished she had been there to watch it happen and help in his transformation.

The next morning, she got to see Sokka and Spirit train and she was in love, but she wasn’t sure with which one. Sokka was in his blue, hair loose, holding his boomerang and sword-ish thing and Spirit was a vision in black, hair loose and wild, and two swords as sharp as the toothy smile the firebender was sending her sparring partner. They were so pretty together.   
  


Trying to get her mind straight, she must have done something to draw attention to herself because they both stopped and turned to look at her with those gorgeous, expressive eyes of theirs. She couldn’t just admit she was just there for the show, so she invited them both to training. Sokka gaped a moment and agreed while Spirit met her eyes and bowed, not breaking eye contact. Suki found that more pleasing than she had any right to. Hopefully the girls would forgive her for adding another outside to their group today.

She really shouldn’t have worried. One look and the lot of them were gone. They looked like Kyoshi herself had joined them. Suki was barely any better.

That hair was beautiful, silky, and incredibly long. Kiko, Hana, and Luo took charge of it immediately after Spirit changed into the uniform. They started discussing hairstyles and the firebender foolishly gave them freerange over it. Yuki and Eri grabbed the paint, leaving her to help Sokka with his.   
  


She hadn’t expected Spirit to stop those two from painting over her scar after she let those three terrors loose on her hair, but the quiet explanation almost had her in tears. Here she had been assuming it was a mark of shame, letting others know she was an outcast from her people. Getting it from someone you were trying to save was better and worse at the same time. Suki was fairly sure she would never be able to trust someone close to her face after something like that, but the firebender had her eyes shut serenely as the two whispered while they coated her face and neck in white.

Seeing those lilies around the edge of the scar made Suki think of how flowers always bloomed more beautifully from old fire pits. The scar didn’t take away from Spirits looks, it, like those painted petals, just enhanced it and made you appreciate what wasn’t damaged all the more. It was just unfair how perfect and elegant a figure she made standing there. The hair, makeup, armor, it all looked like it was made specifically for this moment.

Okay. Maybe she did know which one she was head over heels for. Sorry Sokka.   
  


Well, she said that, but then those two got around to sparing together again and she was torn all over again. They were like a matched set. Both were great on their own, but together, they were breathtaking. And all the girls agreed with her. They all just sat there, practically drooling as those two when at it, swords vs fans, until Katara showed up. 

Then they got to see what Spirit's bending looked like. She never thought it could be so beautiful, but it was. And somehow the two bend the others element!? How did that even work?

Then it was Sokka's turn and the clueless boy she had known from before was back. He wasn't great at it, but he had only just found out he was a bender, so that was understandable. When she looked around to ask Spirit about it, Kyoshi incarnate was nowhere to be seen.

She did see Spirit that evening after dinner, collecting plants under the last quarter moon. As she watched, the firebender planted some seeds along the hill before causing a small rain burst right over the churned soil. Suki wasn't positive, but she really did feel as though Kyoshi was among them once more, there was an other worldly air about the girl that put the warrior at ease.

Then something happened that made her question her sanity. The firebender pulled off the wet robe that had replaced the armor from that morning to reveal the sculptured, underweight, but muscular body of a young man, not the girl she had thought. What was going on?!

Hadn't Sokka said Spirit was a girl? Wait, no. He said they had pretended to be engaged, but not once had any of them called the firebender male or female. She had just assumed.

But shouldn't it have been obvious? How had she missed the lack of breasts? She had been against that chest several times during training, but she hadn't noticed.

She wondered about it as she watched him use his bending to dry the outfit and put it back on. Sleep that night finally stopped her pondering as she woke to realize that it really didn't matter if he wasn't what she had pictured, Spirit had respected the warriors, listened without judgement, taught freely, and acted the way she had always wanted an outsider to treat them. His being a guy didn't change anything.

Well, almost anything. Now that she knew he wasn't just one of the girls, she kind of wondered how great of warriors their children would be. Definitely gorgeous and deadly.

So if she happened to tell Sokka she would be happy to carry his and Spirit's babies when she hugged him goodbye, oh well. It wasn't as if he seemed to hear her anyway. She wasn't sure if it was a pity or not since she was sure she was going to see them again.

She and the girls would be joining the war effort soon and those four were trouble prone, so she was fairly positive it would be long before she could offer her services again. Maybe she would tell Spirit this time, not Sokka. Oh well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

'(•V•)'

Kiko had taken one look at Avatar Aang's new companion and fell in love. If Suki hadn't invited the firebender to training, she would have. He was dreamy.

Unlike most of the girls, she hadn't been born and raised on the island. She had been a traveling merchant's daughter before her parents died. She had seen and learned things the others hadn't.

For example, in the Fire Nation, men often had long hair. They only cut if they lost a fight and their honor was measured by how they wore it. Spirit had very honorable and extremely gorgeous hair.

She also knew exactly who this was even before he told them where he got his scar. She came to the island right after the Battle of Shu Valley from the orphanage in Omashu. She had helped the soldiers who escaped back to the city tell their side of the story.

The Fire Nation had sent an army of children to the valley and the Earth Generals hadn't thought twice about taking them out, only it didn't go as planned. One child, about Avatar Aang's age, with a pair of swords and flames turned the whole plan on its head. In the end, more than half of the elite earthbending squad was dead, the rest injured, and they hadn't been able to wipe out the camp.

The only good thing that came of that battle was the death of Prince Zuko, the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, or so they thought. It seemed the man had been sent there by the Fire Lord as punishment, which meant they had played into the monster's hands like puppets on strings. The prince died and the boy who saved the Fire Nation children almost had too.

She had heard the boy was given to an Earth Kingdom healer near a Fire Nation fort where he grew to respect all people, Earth, Fire, and even Water. They said he had had the hand of Agni burn all the hate from him, leaving a mark to show everyone who he was. Agni's child, the true caring hand of Fire.

She hadn't thought about that story in the two years Kiko had been on Kyoshi Island training as one of their defenders, but then he stepped off Avatar Aang's flying bison and it came roaring back to her. He didn't look fully human, more like an actual spirit trying to blend in verse a young man who took on the name Spirit. Now, she was hearing his side and she was surprised how bad she felt for the firebenders that had died only a few years older than them now.

She hadn't thought about how the blame wasn't entirely in the Fire Nation's hands, but that of her people too. He was so convincing, so beautiful, and a fighter like she had never seen. How could she not get lost in the moment and wonder if the island was doing the right thing by remaining neutral? 

And just when she thought he couldn't surprise her any more, he bent water. It wasn't a poor attempt like Katara's try moving fire or Sokka's beginner waterbending, it was seamless and filled Kiko with awe. For a moment, she wondered if the Great Spirits had given up on the Avatar returning and had created a new one.

It was a silly thought, but it was one that stuck with her even after Spirit and Avatar Aang disappeared out of sight. It was the Avatar who was meant to restore balance to the world, so with two of them, the job would be done by the end of the year! It was wishful thinking, but Kiko didn't care as she prayed in Lady Kyoshi's shrine for protection for both of the boys, and somehow, she knew they would be safe.

'(•V•)'

After Zhao attacked their camp, Zu Len had gathered a group of men who could pass for Earth Kingdom followed their Savior’s example and went to help the places attacked by their former leader’s student. They left Jeong Jeong and the others and moved off to the Abbey where they helped the sisters with any repairs they needed and helped them get their wares to market. That was when they heard about the damage to Kyoshi Island. Getting there wasn’t hard once they reached a seaport, so that was how they were rebuilding a village when their Savior and the Avatar arrived. 

Spirit was a sight in watertribe blue and braids. It seemed those golden eyes found his the moment the group arrived in the crowd at the dock. The waterbender, Katara, seemed to recognize them as well, but seeing as she wasn’t drawing attention to them not actually being Earth, it wasn’t all that important.

Him and his men ate lunch that day with the Avatar, who they gave some hot chilis to for his firebending master, and Katara who had gone from knowing very little bending and just discovering her ability to heal to being a master of both since they had seen her last. In her own way, she was much scarier than the stories of the prodigy Princess Azula. One questioning eyebrow and they explained themselves without outing themselves as Fire Nation to anyone who might be listening in.

Thankfully, she accepted they were on there to help and showed them some of her bending. Zu Len never would have thought a pail of paint could be bent like water, but she was doing it. The odd part was, she said it was their Savior who had taught her how to do it.

The poor man spent the rest of the day and most of the next wonder about that until he saw the two perform in front of the Kyoshi Warriors. Spirit, dressed as a warrior of Kyoshi, had bent water. Zu Len had a massive burn scar on his side to prove their Savior was a firebender, but there was no denying that the water was moving under the guidance of the sword master.

The poor man could only gape at first, but then he realized the waterbender had moved fire too and he gave up trying to understand it at all. Instead, he began to just enjoy the show. The images from the flames was a trick he had one seen from performers at festivals, but Zu Len knew there were no wires or strings used here like those benders had, this was pure control and he couldn’t be prouder.

He stopped even pretending to work as Spirit left the Warriors and the two waterbenders and joined them by the wall they were replacing and barely stopped himself from pulling the teen in for a hug as his guilt over the burn reared its ugly head. That guilt was artfully cut down and destroyed by a warm embrace and babbling teen. It was too hard to stay mad at yourself when you are being pulled inside a building and shown a bending technique by a beaming face that even the scar couldn’t ruin.   
  
By sunset, most of them had learned more about the arrogance of the Northern Watertribe than they ever wanted, more about firebending than they ever dreamed, and more about the boy that had saved them than they had dared hope. He didn’t give them his real name or tell them where he had come from before that awful day, but they now knew about his adventures since then, what foods he liked, how having his hair played with reminded him of his mother, how smitten he was with Prince Sokka and Princess Yue being a couple, and how much he cared about the survivors of the 41st Division. It should have humanized the kid to them, but to Zu Len, it only made Spirit seem more otherworldly.

The kid had survived swimming in the frigid polar waters, learning to create ice with firebending at the same time, and got himself engaged to a princess all in the same day. He had stood up to two Great Spirits, the spirits of the Moon and Ocean, and had a healing spirit join him in convincing the patron spirits of the Watertribes to spare the soldiers of a nation that nearly wiped out their people. He had changed not one, but two different watertribe cultures, taught two people thought to be non-benders how to bend the element opposite his own. He had gone toe-to-toe with the Dragon of the West without using flames and held him back until help arrived. Spirit tales were less unreal than this boy’s last few months.

That wasn’t even taking into account the Minister Qin scaring, Earth Kingdom flyers, being adopted by a heavily burned scarred watertribe warrior, creating the storm while taunting Zhao, and all the other insane parts of the story. He knew they had all happened, he had seen that cloud and lightning appear out of nowhere with his own eyes after all, but it didn’t make them feel any less part of a play. But here Spirit was, talking as if understanding spirits without them speaking was just something anyone could do without training as a Sage for decades.

But then again, he was just a kid, so how was he supposed to know this stuff wasn’t normal? He had been living with a madwoman and spirit for the last three years and now he was traveling with someone who was the host to La, the Avatar, and someone who mastered waterbending in a single season. He likely thought their normal lives were the odd ones. 

At the end of their talk, they said where they were heading next, which why they had to explain that Omashu was under Fire Nation control and had been since around the time they had last seen him and King Bumi was said to held prisoner as an example to keep the populace from rebelling. Spirit took the news in stride and told them that they should check on the survivors of the North to help them integrate into their new lives while he tried to talk a 12-year-old out of rescuing his 112-year-old friend. Instead saying goodbye, they bowed respectfully to him and offered more spice which ended with each of them nearly being hugged to death by a teen who had clearly missed the burn of dragon's breath chillies.

Zu Len and his men weren't stupid. They weren't plotting to get the kid the flavors he was being denied. No, they didn't sneak into Spirit's room that was shared with three others to add their entire collection of seasonings to the bag of food at the foot of one of the beds. Of course not!

If they smirked and made bets about how long it took the kids to find the spices and how long the stash would last, no one needed to know. Why would simple Earth Kingdom citizens give a firebender chilies? Certainly not the ones pretending their eyes weren't on the orange side of brown. Nope. Not at all.

'(•V•)'

Spirit had been relieved when a simple water trick stopped the puns from flying only to go flying himself. It was a familiar feeling, but this time, he wasn’t half dead from lack of energy. He may have partially popped his shoulder out grabbing a fistful of Appa’s fur, but by swinging himself the rest of the way around, it felt like it had gone back in, so he dealt with his hysterical best friend instead of checking the joint.

He knew his swim at the North Pole had been hard on Sokka and they were much closer now than they had been then, so he didn’t think before he pulled the warrior from the edge where the young man looked ready to jump into the ocean to rescue him. There was the beginning of an escape as he pulled him into a hug and blasted a warning shot at the eel, but that was before La’s Son realized only one person was that warm and crumpled into a sobbing mess. He pulled his friend into his lab and everything would have been fine if Karara hadn’t hurt the sea creature.

Sokka could hear the cries of one of the Ocean Spirit’s creatures and it seemed to make him momentarily forget Spirit was the one holding him and not the one hurt. He didn’t regret kicking Katara at all, but he would rather have lectured her on just how bad an idea that had been instead. She looked repentant and her brother flinched at every sound the serpent made, but it didn’t make the firebender feel confident that she wouldn’t do something like this again.

He didn’t waste his energy worrying about Katara, not when he had Sokka to calm down. The humming of childhood lullabies only helped so much before he had to ask his suedo-fiance questions about what he was hearing, seeing, and feeling. He smiled when those blue eyes finally met his and his friend pulled away to go over to his sister.

Spirit made sure to wait for his friend to return and relax before moving to get his own weapons to tend. He saw how Sokka reacted when he moved away, but he made sure to show how much it hurt that he was causing the panic in those blue eyes. He couldn’t stay glued to the warriors side like a two-headed frogfish, so he was going to have to do something to stop La’s overgrown pet from whimpering like a newborn pygmy puma.

The idea of treating the eel’s wounds came to him just before Aang called out to let them know they were nearly to the island. It was beautiful with all the mountains, lagoons, and trees. Then he saw the village and they got closer.

He had heard about Zhao’s attack, but he was shocked by how bad it really was. It looked like half the buildings in the village were new, and many of the original buildings had had to have walls or roofs replaced. He could tell many of the new buildings wouldn’t look new to most, but as someone who had reused old parts of buildings before, he knew it was done when he saw them. And it wasn’t just the buildings, but the way the tree line was too perfect from where the forest nearest the town had had the scorched woods cut back. To him, the whole thing stuck out like his scar.

Something else that stood out were the broad shouldered men in bright Earth green and vibrant brown while most of the people were of a slighter build and wore softer sea tones. When the crowd approached, Spirit got a better look and had to hold back a grin at the sight of the Survivors of the 41st. He wanted to do more than just meet their eyes and nod, but he wasn’t about to draw attention to them. Especially when Sokka was getting kissed by random girls and Aang was openly announcing that he was traveling with a firebender. 

Unlike the airbender, Sokka at least felt bad about what was going on. It was good to know his friend wasn’t going to throw himself at another girl because he missed Yue, but that didn’t mean he trusted the almost-girlfriend to try something else. He also told this Suki off for going after his cousin’s man, but Katara gave him a look and pulled him along with the others up the hill.

He tried not to watch the faces of his friends, which was why his good eye kept going from the village leader to Sokka's former almost-girlfriend. While the man showed almost no reaction to the tale of how the Avatar picked up a firebender healer, but Suki looked like someone had kicked her in the stomach when they explained that Zhao had captured and injured him back when he first met the Gaang and her face morphed through a variety of expressions with each addition to the story. It was good to see she wasn't one of those people who would automatically hate him because he could control flames. Maybe she wasn't too bad.

Well, maybe she was, just in a different way. Katara had gone after his hair and he had let it happen, but then that girl ran off with Sokka the moment he took his eyes off the two! He knew he had to trust that his friend wouldn’t let her do anything to hurt the bond between the Son of La and the Daughter of Tui.

Spirit was glad when Aang took the motherly waterbender off to check on Appa, it allowed him to go clean up her mistake from earlier. Well, that might be a bit harsh, but not in accurate. He was going to make sure there wasn’t going to be a dead eel on Sokka’s or Karra’s conscience.

Swiping his herbalist bag was easy, as was getting back to the water. Stripping off his parka boots and then swimming out to the giant beast whimpering in the bay wasn’t pleasant with his sore shoulder from the near fall earlier, but it wasn’t the hardest thing he had ever done by a long shot. No, the hard part was going to be not dying while trying to treat those still bleeding wounds.

The Unagi didn’t notice him at first, not surprising since it was in pain and he was tiny by comparison, but when he touched its slightly slimy hide, he received a warning hiss. He had heard far scarier ones over the last three years and just rolled his eyes at the beast and climbed on. The fins flared at him and he puffed hot air at its face to tell her to behave. 

He wasn’t positive the eel was a girl, but he knew the females were larger than the males, so he was just hoping this was the largest one he would ever meet. If there were some larger than this one, he really didn’t want to meet it. Was this one the last of its kind? 

That thought got his mind back on track. He wasn’t going to let his friend be the reason the Unagi went extinct. Katara already had two last of their kings to worry about with Aang and Appa, so he was going to take responsibility for the oversized wormlike fish and make sure it would live to spawn a bunch of little unagi.

There was no way he was going to attempt to cauterize the hole in the mucus covered skin and he couldn’t really bandage the wounds either, so he was going to have to work with stitches and poultices. He had a fair bit of spidersnake silk, but he wasn’t sure if the thread would dissolve if he left them in. Spiderfly silk wasn’t something he had much of and it wasn’t as strong, but those stitches should last more than a week, give or take a couple days.

Helping the Unagi was a long and tedious process, but very informative. For example, the poor thing seemed to be shedding its mucus layer, which was a bad thing for an eel. Also, he found out she seemed to like being stoked, which could mean she used to be a pet back when she was a juvenile or small adult. Also, he was fairly sure she was freshwater eel, not one meant to spend all their time in saltwater. If he was right, the shedding and loving touch would be explained easily. He could make her life much easier if he found where she used to live before she grew to this ridiculous size.

After stopping the bleeding and sewing her up, he tried to get back in the water to swim around to wash off her slime, but she seemed worried about him and kept a coil under him at all times. It took some time, but he managed to get her to allow him in the water as long as part of her was beneath him. Once she realized he was trying to clean himself, she gently showered him with a spray of water. 

After the bath, one thing lead to another and soon she was giving him an ocean side tour of Kyoshi Island. He got to see every bay, inlet, stream, and peninsula there was, but she seemed to like one of the lagoons more than the others since she had shown it to him at least three times now. If he had to guess, he would say this was her home.

It was a large and very deep area, with the exception of the ridge that almost separated it from the sea. There was a stream that fed into it that looked like it had been a river decades ago. If he wasn’t wrong, this used to be a freshwater lake by the sea before something, likely a well to do earthbender, had caused the wall separating the two bodies of water and dammed up the river feeding the lake.

Spirit, for the first time he could remember, wished he was an earthbender so he could fix the Unagi’s home. It wouldn’t take much. Raise the wall, make an underwater entrance large enough for her to fit through, and unstop the river. For now, he would have to settle to just getting fresh water flowing in again and come back with a bender later to finish the job.

It took the better part of the day to safely get the river running into the former lake. He had to rearrange fallen trees and rocks so the rushing waters would get slowed down without flooding or destroying the area around the mostly dry riverbed. After that, all it took was one well aimed blash and the water was moving again, out of the hills, down the valley, through the forest, and into the bay where a very excited Unagi nearly beached herself in her rush to be in water not tainted with salt. 

As the giant happily wriggled around in the stream, Spirit collected his bag of supplies from where he had tied them to a tree, moved across the land arm of the lagoon, and got back into the ocean. He didn’t get out of sight of the bay before he felt the now familiar slimy hide under him as he swam. The Unagi pulled him along in her wake all the way back to the bay he had arrived at that morning. 

The swim to shore from there wasn’t long, but his shoulder was really protesting after everything he had put it through, so it was going to take longer than it really should. He knew was being watched by his new friend, so he refused to let it show just how much he was struggling. Spirit reached land and pulled on his parka as quick as he could before returning to the water’s edge to remove the last of the eel mucus from his skin. 

In hindsight, he should have seen what happened next coming from a mile away. But he was in pain, hungry, and tired, so he was shocked when he was sprayed down with water from the monstrous figure keeping an eye on him from the sea. It wasn’t like he could get mad at her for it. She was just trying to help.

He waved at her and headed back to the room they had been given, not bothering to avoid being seen this time. Some of the people in the village openly gaped at him, like because despite it being summer in the south, it was still pretty cool out, he was sopping wet, and he was barefoot as he carried his boots and drowned socks. A few mothers covered their little boys’ eyes because his soaked parka was showing more attributes than actually existed, since he hadn’t put on the pants and they were bunched up in the chest area. He got a few whistles, which was just rude, so he smiled sharply and summoned a small fire to his hand, which shut them up quickly. By the time he reached the building he was staying in, the pants had joined the boots in his arms. Spirit was thinking about how funny it would be if he went back through the town without the pants padded chest to see the reactions when Sokka showed up in a green dress, armor, and red and white makeup.

Katara came in just after that, got a good look at the two of them before actively ignoring them the rest of the time she was in the room collecting her things for a bath. They both watched her go before how ridiculous they looked hit them and they doubled over laughing. It took them a minute to stop and get to work removing the source of their mirth.

He helped Sokka with a few tries hold the armor to the dress and the sash before attempting and failing to shrug off the heavy weight of his soaked parka. His shoulder had swelled at some point, probably from everything he did before blowing the dam, making it stiffer and trapping it in the sleeve. Spirit was thankful for his friend’s help getting free, but his shirt came off with it and the guilty look on his tanned face made the firebender wish he had managed to undress on his own so the bruises hadn’t been exposed like this.

He quickly pulled on a dry outfit and wet a cloth in the basin on the bed stand before going after the paint on Sokka’s face. So maybe he should have told the southern warrior what he was going to do before going after the makeup, but he already knew he wasn’t thinking clearly. Of course his friend flinched away and looked at him like he had just stolen the last piece of seal jerky right out from under him, but Spirit was tired and the red paint was irritating him because his brain was screaming that it should be dark grey instead. He vaguely knew why that was bothering him, but he ignored it and focussed on removing every trace of red before tackling the black and white with a bit less aggression.

After he was sure every last trace of the white paint was gone, he moved to his and Katara’s bed and worked on drying everything until dinner. He hadn’t really felt hungry all day, but as soon as he took a bite he felt like he was starving, so he tried to talk as little as possible as he shoveled food into his mouth. It was bland, but still good, as least until Aang gave him a pouch of chilis.

Spirit had been missing fiery spices more than just about anything since he joined the Gaang. He had brought more than what he thought he would need for his stay with him to the Abbey, but then he had treated Bato to Fire Nation food, so it had run out the day after those three showed up. Now, he had more and he had every intention of savoring every single bite of tongue tingling goodness from now on. 

He ate until he was too tired and too sore to eat anymore. He knew if he didn’t ask her, Sokka would, so he admitted he had hurt his shoulder that morning and Katara’s motherly instincts took over. The coolness of the water eased the pain enough that he almost fell asleep right then, but then the healing itch kicked in enough to keep him awake as she took down the swelling, soothed the tight muscles, and erased the bruises on not just his shoulder, but his ribs too. He barely remembered her finishing up, but he felt very loved as she tucked him in.

He dreamt of a small woman with golden hair and deep bronze skin dancing and teasing a man who looked half dragon and mostly flame as an adult, one-eyed, glowing Yue smiled fondly at the two as she teased a bearded, massive, seven-eyed Sokka. They played and giggled until they saw him and they all called out for him to join them. He danced and laughed with them and several others who showed up for an eternity yet it seemed only moments. The dragon-man called him his son and warned him that there was going to be a time they were separated to balance his mother’s return as the tiny woman spun past them. When he woke, he knew what had happened.

He had taken the name, now he was family to the Spirits. A day was coming where the Agni’s light would be blocked. An eclipse to balance the power gained by the return of the comet. They had warned him.

Spirit knew from Qin that his father was going to use the comet to attack another nation, but before that happened, there would be a chance to stop him. He needed to have Aang ready by the time the moon blocked out the sun. He knew when that was, it was something his tutors had drilled into his mind by the age of eight. This year, just after the Summer solstice and then the comet to usher in the autumn. He had less than eight months to make sure the Avatar was able to use all four elements. 

Well, now was as good a time as any to make sure Aang truly had a connection to his inner flame. Rousing the boy was harder than usual, but given how hard he had worked the day before, it wasn’t surprising. Their sunrise meditation went better than expected, which was great news.

Since was less worried about Aang and Katara was a force of nature these days, he turned his sights on Sokka. He knew the siblings would start working on waterbending, but knowing how to fight without bending would help too. He was careful in waking his friend and asking to spar and was actually surprised at how quickly the usually dead-to-the-world-in-the-morning warrior got up and ready. He actually had to be told to eat breakfast!

It felt so good to spar in the sunlight! He was about to stop and pull off his shirt to get more light, but then he felt the gaze of the kissing girl from earlier. Well, if there was an audience, there should be a show, should there not? Sokka recognized what they were doing and stopped. It only took one slight head gesture to let the warrior know exactly where their observer was. 

She looked shocked to be spotted as they sent her Momo eyes. The way she was fighting a blush almost had Spirit laughing, but then she started eyeing them both like a tasty treat, he realized this girl was a Kyoshi warrior and there were rumors about them in the Earth Kingdom that like the Avatar they model themselves after, they took both men and women to their beds. This was going to be Sokka all over again, wasn’t it?

Nope. Nothing like Sokka. These girls were very open about their admiration of his hair, figure, bone structure, everything. He was half convinced a few of them even realized he wasn’t a girl and were fine with either one.   
  
The armor and dress weren’t hard to get into and they were actually helpful in protecting the legs from typical water and fire attacks. As soon as he entered the main room wearing it, he felt the urge to run. It was like being in a room with a bunch of old women who pinch your cheeks, play with your hair, and grab random parts of your body then comment on your weight. Only, these girls could likely catch him if he ran. Instead, he let them loose on his hair and allowed them to put that makeup on him.

When the girl went to cover his scar, he didn’t think, he just grabbed her hand and told her not to hide it. This, of course, drew everyone's attention to him again. There was nothing he could do except explain.

Telling them about the Battle of Shu Valley from his perspective wasn’t as painful now that Spirit knew there were survivors and that some of them were on the island with them. From their faces, he could tell some of them had heard other versions of the story before, but those that hadn’t looked like they were trying to decide whether to hug him, cry, or vomit. Only one went for the first option and the rest settled for squeezing his hand or shoulder instead of an embrace, a few crying as they did so.

One of the girls doing his makeup had a glimmer in her eye as she leaned forward and asked if she could decorate the edges of the mangled flesh of his face and he let her. He closed his eyes and let them do their tasks and he relished the feeling of fingers in his hair. When they were done, he was handed a small lookingglass.

He barely recognized himself. He was gorgeous. He knew he was on the feminine side, sure, but this was beyond that. His skin was flawlessly and white was fresh snow up to the border of his scar. Red firelilies followed the edge from his hairline to the base of his ear and it looked like how they grew back home on the side of cooled lava flows. His hair was almost an afterthought, but it was elegant and out of his way when it came time to fight.

He looked more like his mother than he had ever even dreamed. He knew some of his features were from Ozai, but like this, there was more Ursa. It was a gift he never expected and always secretly wanted.

Compared to the way he looked, the fighting was only good, not amazing. They were all wonderful fighters, but they all fought in basically the same way. Suki, the leader and Sokka kisser, was the most different, but that was expected from her position in the Kyoshi Warrior. Fighting Sokka was the best part.

They started with Sokka with his machete and boomerang and Spirit with the twin dao, then their weapons were replaced with fans, and then one fan and sword each. At some point his friend had both the dao and he had a fan and the boomerang. When the blindfold was brought out, he only had the fans, but that was where it really got fun.

He had to rely on the one good ear, the feeling of heat around him, and the feeling of eyes on him. Each set of eyes felt different. Most of the girls had dirty feeling gazes that made him feel like he needed ro put more clothes on, a few felt dangerous, like pygmy pumas on the prowl, and some caring and gentle. Sokka’s was like the sea, cool, dangerous, and inviting. Then, when they were really going at it, he felt Katara’s sharp, icy glare that let him know it was time to stop and beg her not to hurt anyone.

She settled on watching him and Sokka eat while she somewhat secretly judged the warriors. Then, instead of letting them go back to training in the dojo, Katara got a look in her eyes and asked them to come outside for some bending practice. What she should have said was, “come outside so I can show you what I will do if you touch my friend” as it was a bit more accurate.

She had learned a few new moves since he last watched. It was great seeing her so in tune with her element, pulling it straight from the air, soil, plants, moving plants with the water inside of them, even moving fire around with moist air! It was amazing!

Making shapes from flames and water was simple compared to their earlier feats, but it really seemed to draw a crowd. It seemed like half the village was watching, though a certain group of men in bright green who alternated between staring wide-eyed at the two of them bending and attempting to continue their repairs. Katara met his eye before pulling in Sokka so he could make a break for it.

He flashed her a thankful smile and backed away. He waited until no one was really focusing on him before practically racing over to the Survivors grinning happily. He wasn't sure when he became a hugger, but he pulled them all inside the shop they were working on and embraced each of them.

Hugs turned to teaching and Spirit for the first time realized he really was a firebending master and not the failure he had been called for 13 years. It was sobering and incredibly freeing as well a bit daunting that a 16-year-old was instructing men twice his age. Were these forms and practices not something all benders learned? He had always thought the benders that had taught him were just being encouraging when they told him how well he had done, but if this was how these men reacted to something he took for granted, maybe he really was a good bender.

This revelation left him in high spirits as they gossipped and trained. He learned Omashu was under Fire Nation control, now called New Zuko, which Spirit thought was unsettling, and King Bumi been captured while they worked on controlling heat instead of flames. In Spirit's mind, it was a fair trade, but the others acted like they shortchanged him, which might be why they 'hid' a fairly large stash of spices into his bag.

Telling the others about the city being captured had caused an argument about whether Bumi was the right earthbending teacher for Aang, which was such a big todo that Spirit didn't even get around to telling them about the Fire Nation name for the city. He was finally ready to tell the boys who he really was, but they were too busy spouting off the pros and cons of traveling with the 112-year-old king of Omashu for him to get the words out to explain the city of innovation had been named after him because most people thought he had died in its shadow. Instead, he kept that information to himself and agreed to leave in the morning.

Since they were going right after breakfast, if he wanted to make sure the Unagi was going to be alright, he would have to check on her tonight. He collected some herbs and thinned a few patches before pulling the heat from the air to cause an isolated rain shower to water them in before trekking out to the stream that fed into the eel's lagoon. As expected, she practically beached her head in the path of fresh water.

He made sure to approach loudly so she wasn't startled by his arrival. She was the size of a fully grown isodog, but reacted to him like she was a young pup. It was hard to get her to stay still enough to check her stitches and change the poultices on her flank.

Amazingly, her mucus layer already seemed thicker and less patchy than it had the day before. That was awfully quick, but this was a spirit blessed creature, so who was he to question it? It just meant he didn't have to worry as much about her.

She tried to get Spirit to swim with her, but he knew he was going to need all the sleep he could get to get through the following days, so he promised to come play with her when he had an earthbender to fix her lake. She nuzzled him enough that he looked like Appa had bathed him with that massive bison tongue before he escaped her affection. He ended up getting wet when he moved upstream and washed her slime off of his skin, clothes, and out of his hair.

For the second time that night he had to dry his clothes and hair with bending, but they were both his own fault. He was used to having free reign, for the most part, of the bogland near the stronghold, so getting dirty wasn't an issue as long as he cleaned up after himself, but here, he had an image to upkeep for Aang and the 41st, plug he was sharing a bed with Katara. He just hoped the constant heating of his hair wouldn't harm it, him nor his hair-loving friend would be happy about it getting damaged.

It seemed fine in the morning when they went through the brushing and styling process, so he didn't have to worry about getting a lecture, thank goodness. He did get a slight lecture about not eating enough breakfast from the siblings, but it wasn't something he thought either of them noticed they were doing it. Being told to get thirds at breakfast was nothing compared to what Katara would do if he messed up her favorite plaything.

Leaving was sad, in the "I wish I could have spent a bit longer here" kinda way, but he was also excited to travel the Earth Kingdom. Sure he had spent the last three years living in it, but he rarely traveled anywhere. This was going to be a new and exciting journey that he was looking forward to, especially if it kept his friend away from Suki and that glint in her eyes.

He wasn't sure what she told Sokka, but she reminded him of Azula for a moment, which had him on edge. He had planned on hugging the girls and thanking them for listening to him in the dojo the day before, but instead, he bowed. He may have used a real flame instead of just shaping one with his hand, but he was just reminding her that it was his cousin's fiance she was hitting on after all.

'(•V•)'

Azula felt a shiver. It had been happening a lot recently. It was the same one she used to get went Zuzu was talking about her behind her back. It had been something she missed over the last two years, but now it was getting annoying. 

It had started a few months ago and had been happening every few days. One day it had happened at least eight times. If she found who was talking about her, she was going to make them sorry for annoying her. She was having a hard enough time getting used to Uncle being away, she didn't need this on top of it.

She knew father had sent Uncle away to punish him. One of father's favorite Generals had gotten leads on the Avatar after 100 years, so he had been promoted to Admiral only for the man to go mad. Now Uncle had been sent to make sure the man fulfilled his mission.

Azula knew there was a near certainty that she would never see the man who had tamed the storm in her head ever again. Father wanted him gone, especially after Mai's father had named that earth city after her late brother rather than the Fire Lord. Father was losing men and power, which had some whispering treason.

Father knew that she knew, so he had sent her off to track down a certain war minister who had been in the Earth Kingdom when he disappeared. She knew her father would assume she would retrieve Ty Lee from the circus and Mai from New Zuko, but she hated to be predictable. Instead, she was going to the place where the trouble started.

The home of the infamous Yuyan Archers, the Pohuai Stronghold. Even if she got no answers about Zhao, she could always take the archers. Hunting traitors would be good practice.

'(•V•)'

Miyuki liked her kitten's littermate. Sharp claws, fighter, smart. It was good this kitten was leaving. It wouldn't do to have that one get in the way. Her kitten would not be happy if the toothed mewling got hurt.

She wasn't going to hurt their sire too badly. Insanity was too good for the tom that knotted her kitten's chi. She would just make sure he wouldn't have any more kittens to hurt and let Agni have the rest. No one could say she never shared.

**Author's Note:**

> Spirit in Kyoshi face paint inspired by  
> https://quatribobo.tumblr.com/post/617198988588908544/k-but-like-the-kyoshi-warriors-meeting
> 
> Also, please leave suggestions for companion piece one-shots for the Those Left Behind series!


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